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on what to do with weakness
The other day my friend was telling me about her acting woes. She’s auditioning a lot, she said, but none of the roles felt “right.” “It’d be better if I wrote my own parts,” she said. “But I can’t see myself actually writing. And I’m not a self-starter. I just know myself – I’d never…
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on observing
If you’ve ever been to yoga class, you’ve probably — hopefully — heard some variation of this: “Just notice.” “Don’t judge.” “Just observe the sensations that come up.” This is the core essence of yoga, as I understand it. (I used to think it was getting super flexible and doing cool arm balances that I…
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on self-trust
In 2013 I won a major writing contest. The editors called to gush over my story. “Tell us about yourself,” said one. “You’re only 25 and you wrote this incredible story. Where did it come from?” I panicked. Any minute now, they were going to find me out. They’d notice I was not national-prize-winning material,…
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why writing is like air travel
I really like airports. Going through security doesn’t bother me. It’s kind of fun to hunt through the terminal for a chai latte. I find it satisfying to refill my water bottle at those little fountain things that are only at airports. I don’t mean airports are good places to hang out for no reason.…
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it’s not possible to make a mistake
There’s a scene in Kurt Vonnegut’s book Breakfast of Champions where John meets Mona, a woman from the fictional religious group the Bokononists. John acts shy at first, so Mona says, “It is not possible to make a mistake.” That’s the customary greeting given by all Bokononists when meeting a shy person, she tells him.…
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to reveal, or not to reveal?
“I don’t know whether I should write about my affair,” one of my memoir clients said recently. “Without it, the choices I made after don’t make sense. But I can’t imagine my ex-sister-in-law reading it…She might not forgive me.” This kind of dilemma comes up a lot with my memoir clients. They want to write…
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a beast in my soup
One afternoon I was having lunch with my friend Misha. We were gabbing about who-knows-what when she stopped and said, “There’s a beast in my soup.” I looked over and sure enough, swimming around her soup was a jade-green beetle. We erupted into giggles. “What is the other word?” she said, wiping a tear. She’s…
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the thing about peru
People often ask me why I live in Peru. For years, I’d give an almost-answer: “I like learning Spanish, I love the people, my friends here, the food, the history, the culture.” Those are all true, but they don’t add up to the full reason. Only recently have I understood the real “why.” * In…
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a sharpened stake
I used to think writing was a solitary act. I wrote alone, brainstormed alone, edited alone. Only on very rare occasion did I let it out into the sunlight, did I invite someone in. Partly that’s because I was shy. I didn’t think anyone would want to read what I wrote. And showing someone your…
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anatomy of a story
One Thursday in 2017, my arm began to hurt. Instantly I assumed the worst: I must have torn something, probably during silks practice. I put on a sling and refused to lift even a pen. The pain worsened. So, days later, I called my chiropractor to book an appointment. “What does it feel like?” he…
Kimberly Bunker, MFA 